It’s one of Hollywood’s most talked-about family feuds. The bitter tension between Candy Spelling and her daughter, Tori, has played out publicly since the death of Candy’s second husband (Tori’s father), Aaron Spelling, in 2006. There was Tori’s shock over her less-than-anticipated inheritance, Candy’s criticism of Tori in an open letter and several accusations hurled between the two in both the tabloids and their respective memoirs.
Now, Candy is speaking out about her complicated relationship with Tori, telling “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” that public perception of their mother-daughter dynamic hasn’t always been accurate.
“I call it the ‘infamous feud between Tori and Mom,'” Candy says. “A lot of that was blown out of proportion.”
As the media reported on the attacks and icy incidents between Tori and Candy, Candy says she was unfairly cast as the villain, while Tori was portrayed as the victim.
“A lot of it was, ‘Oh, poor Tori,'” she says. “It was played that way, I have to say, in an unfair way. No one really looked at the facts.”
The mother of two says she was deeply affected by what was written about her. “It was very mean and hurtful. Really, truly,” Candy says. “No one likes to be thought [of] as the Wicked Witch. A lot of those headlines really hurt me… It made me very reclusive. I didn’t want to go out.”
She’s since learned to ignore the hurtful headlines and even says that her relationship with Tori is on the mend.
“It’s much better now,” Candy says. “We kind of just had to sweep it aside and go, ‘Okay, let’s just move forward.’ [We’re] enjoying each other, sometimes like girlfriends, for the first time.”
